Joan Osborne was born on July 8,
1962, in Kentucky. Joan originally attended
NYU's film school, but began singing at clubs
around New York after singing a Billie
Holiday song at a bar's open-mic night at the
urging of friends.

Joan formed her own label called
Womanly Hips and release a live LP, Soul
Show. Joan then released the EP, Blue
Million Miles and signed with Mercury
Records. Joan displayed that she is gifted
not only with her voice, but with her complex
lyrics that invoke both the imagination and
the mind. She puts rock and soul qualities in
all her songs, and creates music that is
catchy and personable.

Joan's first major label LP and
breakthrough LP, Relish was released in March.
The LP found critical success, but didn't
find commercial success until "One Of Us" hit the radio
airwaves and video channels.

Joan participated in the highly
successful Lilith Fair package tour. At one
point during the tour, Joan took a stand for
pro-choice rights. The tour's organizer, Sarah
McLachlan, and Joanstated
that in the future they would not perform at
the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Texas.
Planned Parenthood had problems being allowed
to set up a booth due to the venue's
policies. Joan later graced the stage with a
Planned Parenthood t-shirt and stated to the
crowd, "I'm the face of pro-choice
Texas."

A Joan Osborne boycott was
staged by an anti-abortion group after Joan
participated in several public service
announcements for the pro-choice Planned
Parenthood. Joan recorded radio spots in
support of Planned Parenthood. Joan has also recorded a duet
with Bob
Dylan on a cover of "Chimes Of
Freedom" for an NBC mini-series.

Note: Song title and
position links lead you to the song's Top
40 chart run (from the ARC Weekly Top
40)
and LP links take you to Amazon.com for that LP (often
including track listings and sound
samples).